Top 276 Discretion Quotes & Sayings

Discretion is the better part of not getting exsanguinated.

Discretion is a very valuable asset.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.

Discretion is deadly to genius; ruinous to talent.

Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty.

Discretion is the most powerful tool a police officer carries on the beat, because an appropriate level of discretion can short-circuit the use of lethal force. Discretion and de-escalation measures are pro-community, pro-police, and create more trust while making everyone safer.

Yield nothing to love that is denied to discretion.

I have tales to tell, but I don't tell them. Discretion. Discretion.

In avoiding one evil we fall into another, if we use not discretion.

Women do not think with logic and discretion but with emotions of the heart

Surely you’re not going to practice discretion now?

While few judges or prosecutors would be afraid to exercise their perfectly legitimate discretion in favour of an ordinary man, not to mention a minority group member, most would be terrified to exercise the same discretion for someone politically, financially or socially powerful.

Corruption is the by-product of discretion when there is scope for interpretation of policies.

Folly is wont to have more followers and comrades than discretion.

Parental Discretion is advised, but will be completely f*n, ignored

Bohemia has no banner. It survives by discretion.

Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.

Working and making a fire doth discretion require.

The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion.

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Garlic, like perfume, must be used with discretion and on the proper occasions.

Zaphod did not want to tangle with them and, deciding that just as discretion is the better part of valor, so was cowardice is the better part of discretion, he valiantly hid himself in a closet.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Most high courts in other nations do not have discretion, such as we enjoy, in selecting the cases that the high court reviews. Our court is virtually alone in the amount of discretion it has.

Though this motion for a new trial is an application to the discretion of the Court, it must be remembered that the discretion to be exercised on such an occasion is not a wild but a sound discretion, and to be confined within those limits within which an honest man, competent to discharge the duties of his office, ought to confine himself. And that discretion will be best exercised by not deviating from the rules laid down by our predecessors; for the practice of the Court forms the law of the Court.

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

I serve at the discretion of the prime minister.

Sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.

The rest is a mere matter of detail, to be settled with judgment, discretion, and caution.

One can pass on responsibility, but not the discretion that goes with it.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

Even in a hero's heart Discretion is the better part.

Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy.

Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.

[The] discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny . . .

Middle age is when the best exercise is one of discretion.

Neither coquetry nor love is imbued with discretion.

We schoolmasters must temper discretion with deceit.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.

Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end

The importance of discretion increases with closeness to the top of a hierarchical organization.

What exactly is 'viewer discretion'? If viewers had discretion, most television shows would not be on the air.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the Court to follow it. Judicial power is never exericised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.

Indifference is commonly the mother of discretion.

Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Discretion is a synonym for intelligence.

Drunkenness is the very sepulcher Of man's wit and his discretion.

What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes.

Notable talents are not necessarily connected with discretion.

Perish discretion, when it interferes With duty!

"...arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and as a matter of law, unsupportable."

Discretion, like the hole in a doughnut, does not exist except as an area left open by a surrounding belt of restriction. It is therefore a relative concept. It always makes sense to ask, "Discretion under which standards?" or "Discretion as to which authority?

Living in the present moment requires discretion toward memory. Without memory we'd have amnesia. What good would there be in that? Offer discretion and discernment for our past with a broad spectrum of forgiveness. As for our present moment, delight. And dedication to remain fully present to all the possibility.

I don't show every picture that I have, I think discretion is also important.

Zeal should not outrun discretion.

Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop, Not to outsport discretion.